Prepping isn't all fun

Jayne

Jayne

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Prepping isn't all about shooting zombies in the head at 1000 yards with your laser equipped Mosin... it's mostly just crappy work.

Rotating things, digging ditches, shoveling gravel, dealing with leaking water tanks, weeding gardens... just an endless array of boring tasks that all seem to be dirty, time consuming or generally just work.

Can civilization just collapse already so I don't have to rotate fuel cans for a while? Sheesh.
 
After five years I just decided to be blissfully ignorant.




(although I am soliciting quotes on a whole house generator as we speak)
 
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Moving out into the country with more of a farm setting, it becomes everyday life. You're not doing things just for preppings sake and taking time out of your regular life. It becomes your regular life. No, we are not a fully self sustaining farm yet. But, the mindset change is huge. I no longer think about the complexities of bugging out, where I'm going or how will I get there. I'm already here. Now everything I do has a purpose for living, rather than doing things in preparation for something that may happen.
It's a little hard to explain, even though I don't really have a lot and we're financially strained, I'm blessed.
 
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Its a waste of time, energy and effort.

Store 45 days worth of food in your home that you currently eat. Rotate the stock as you eat it.

Beyond that, enjoy life. I have never met a prepper who was a joy to be around. All that wasteful work, doom and gloom mindset, its not healthy.

I enjoy living in reality.
 
If you treat it like a hobby its not bad at all. But Boyette is pretty much correct. If you let it take over your life you will decend into a burn out stage. Back before and after the days of Y2K I saw it happen several times.
 
What kills me about most preppers is they can not go to the mailbox without getting winded. Almost all of them think of owning "stuff" = prepared

Truth is the mort stuff you have, the less likely you are to un-ass the problem area. In the last 100 years, we have not had a natural disaster that spans more than 50 miles from one's location. IE if you move +/- 50 miles away from the danger zone, you are no longer in the danger zone. Having stuff makes one want to stay and fight it out. That's counterproductive to living and surviving.
 
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JBoyette said:
What kills me about most preppers is they can not go to the mailbox without getting winded.
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I usually joke about my fitness by saying I keep a chair beside the mailbox. Unfortunately, it ain't far from the truth.

:oops:
 
kcult said:
I usually joke about my fitness by saying I keep a chair beside the mailbox. Unfortunately, it ain't far from the truth.

:oops:
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All jokes aside, in September I signed up to do a 5k run/walk/suck fest because I needed too. At the end of it, this was a great experience for me and my family. I completed that 5k in 48 min's. Things like that burn my brain because back in my Army days I would walk an 11min mile pace under a real load of weight.

Anyhow,
two weeks ago I was training for the upcoming 5k rifle-pistol match here in NC I completed the 5k in 40mins. That reads like an 8min improvement. Buts its more than that. In sept, I did the 5k in lightweight clothing. This last run I did in pants, combat shirt, hiking boots with a battle belt, a Glock 19, a 18" Ar and 90rnds of 5.56mm and 60rnds of 9mm in my belt.

Point is, you might not ever be your 20-year-old self, but you can be the best now self. Get off your ass and do it. I messed up my back again last week while running, missed 3 days of work, a week of training for this upcoming match, but guess what, I am back at it tonight.
 
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REELDOC said:
If you treat it like a hobby its not bad at all. But Boyette is pretty much correct. If you let it take over your life you will decend into a burn out stage. Back before and after the days of Y2K I saw it happen several times.
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I used to consult with several "prepper" groups around the state. They've pretty much all disbanded or people have fallen away. As John mentioned it can be doom and gloom all the time and that can be fatiguing. And as another friend (Howard, a member here.) pointed out, you end up with all this expensive gear that sits there, getting old and unused. Better to have gear/food that you use and as John points out, cycle it out. It's a subtle mindset/lifestyle change, but a significant one.

I may have told the story of a prepper con I went to in Columbia. It was held at a large fairly modern church. I met some of the host and commented on how I thought it was interesting their Church was holding a prepper con. Their reply was, it was their minisrty. They, like other preppers, felt there was some sort of cataclysm about to occur. So, not only did they feel the need to prepare, they felt the need to prepare for others as well. The sick, the elderly, even the healthy that didn't prepare or were unable to prepare. This was an eye opener for me. Prepping is usually a somewhat selfish focused endeavor secretly hoarding and protecting supplies from others. And here was a group openly putting away supplies for others, like David storing grain for the seven years of famine. That changed my thoughts on prepping completely. I started thinking on a much larger scale. Because in reality, I'm not going to shoot the hungry little orphaned kid that comes knocking at the gate.
But, gang of mauraders coming down the road? Well, that's a different story.



ETA - Were in a lull now. Economy is looking somewhat good. People are spending money. It may the calm before the storm. Like the seven years of plenty before the seven years of famine. Now is the time to gather, while it is easy.

Just sayin'
 
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georgel said:
Moving out into the country with more of a farm setting, it becomes everyday life. You're not doing things just for preppings sake and taking time out of your regular life. It becomes your regular life. No, we are not a fully self sustaining farm yet. But, the mindset change is huge. I no longer think about the complexities of bugging out, where I'm going or how will I get there. I'm already here. Now everything I do has a purpose for living, rather than doing things in preparation for something that may happen.
It's a little hard to explain, even though I don't really have a lot and we're financially strained, I'm blessed.
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Aren't we indeed...……..blessed? Living this way is hard to explain to folks...I think I'll just stop.
 
I’m in Shape as long as I will be biking somewhere. Not an issue to pedal that thing 20-100 miles in a day but tell me to run to the mailbox and back and someone gonna need to get my oxygen.
 
quote from a book i read:
most of the year is spent
preparing for the winter.
 
georgel said:
I used to consult with several "prepper" groups around the state. They've pretty much all disbanded or people have fallen away. As John mentioned it can be doom and gloom all the time and that can be fatiguing. And as another friend (Howard, a member here.) pointed out, you end up with all this expensive gear that sits there, getting old and unused. Better to have gear/food that you use and as John points out, cycle it out. It's a subtle mindset/lifestyle change, but a significant one.

I may have told the story of a prepper con I went to in Columbia. It was held at a large fairly modern church. I met some of the host and commented on how I thought it was interesting their Church was holding a prepper con. Their reply was, it was their minisrty. They, like other preppers, felt there was some sort of cataclysm about to occur. So, not only did they feel the need to prepare, they felt the need to prepare for others as well. The sick, the elderly, even the healthy that didn't prepare or were unable to prepare. This was an eye opener for me. Prepping is usually a somewhat selfish focused endeavor secretly hoarding and protecting supplies from others. And here was a group openly putting away supplies for others, like David storing grain for the seven years of famine. That changed my thoughts on prepping completely. I started thinking on a much larger scale. Because in reality, I'm not going to shoot the hungry little orphaned kid that comes knocking at the gate.
But, gang of mauraders coming down the road? Well, that's a different story.



ETA - Were in a lull now. Economy is looking somewhat good. People are spending money. It may the calm before the storm. Like the seven years of plenty before the seven years of famine. Now is the time to gather, while it is easy.

Just sayin'
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I heard a discussion on that very subject and found it quite interesting. Basically their take was that as a Christian there is nothing wrong with prepping as long as it wasn’t self centered and isolating from God and others. If it really does hit the fan you should be prepared to share what you have with others. It made me think.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Read the LDS manual. Chance favors the prepared mind.
 
Rotating fuel in small quantities sucks, but on the farm we keep pairs of tanks and a service comes and fills, worst case we have a couple thousand gallons of diesel and 500 of gas. Nice to have for short-term disruptions, but we aren’t exactly taking it on a run. You guys out in the rural areas might look for something similar, maybe smaller if you don’t measure your farm in sections.
 
I am in to preparedness, but like to think I keep in preceptive. It is not something I stress over. I am fully aware that if SHTF for real and on a large scale, my days are numbered, but at least I should go out well fed and squeaky clean.

Being as independent and self reliant as I can is satisfying to me. Plus, it turns storms and such into non issues.
 
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georgel said:
Moving out into the country with more of a farm setting, it becomes everyday life. You're not doing things just for preppings sake and taking time out of your regular life. It becomes your regular life.
Click to expand...

Even just 10 years ago if you told me I would be waking up early every day to go tend chickens, I would have thought you crazy. Now we're the crazy ones telling people we have to be home before dark to put the "pets" to bed (ie feed and lock up the goats).

We're no where sustainable nor will we ever be, but storms and such are non-issues for the most part and that's about it.

Except for this gravity feed water system for the raspberries. I will figure that crap out eventually, even if the birds are going to end up stealing most my berries.
 
Jayne said:
Even just 10 years ago if you told me I would be waking up early every day to go tend chickens, I would have thought you crazy. Now we're the crazy ones telling people we have to be home before dark to put the "pets" to bed (ie feed and lock up the goats).

We're no where sustainable nor will we ever be, but storms and such are non-issues for the most part and that's about it.

Except for this gravity feed water system for the raspberries. I will figure that crap out eventually, even if the birds are going to end up stealing most my berries.
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There are chicken feed and water systems that reduce the need for daily care. I have most of the parts for both, but those project are like 102,103 on the list. Our goats roam a paddock attached to the stall and put themselves to bed. BTW, goats only need a few hours of sleep. I often find them out in the paddock laying on top of some wooden spools I put out there for them, late at night.
Consider bird nets.

You say you're not sustainable, but you'll have eggs a goat's milk when others are without.

Someone brought up the other day that's it's difficult to go anywhere for more than a day or so because of animal care. That can be an issue, but these days I don't much feel the need to be gone long. Besides, my daughters no handle most of the animals now. ;)
 
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We are not hard core preppers but we’ve been trying to be more self sufficient. We’ve been working in the garden and hopefully going to get a few chickens, goats, and maybe a pig to try to raise in the next couple months.

I don’t think it’s possible for us to become totally self sufficient but we figure every little bit helps. I think people that actually try will have a better start than 99% of the population if something bad was to happen. Experience is priceless.

Here’s the garden a week ago. We got a late start but have replanted the corn after it drowned and also planted watermelon, cantaloupe, and asparagus in another garden on the other side of the old farm house. Hoping to plant more corn and beans over there for a later harvest.
67DC2EAB-B5E7-46B3-8C2A-BE78A8B3CD3A.jpeg
 
georgel said:
There are chicken feed and water systems that reduce the need for daily care. I have most of the parts for both, but those project are like 102,103 on the list. Our goats roam a paddock attached to the stall and put themselves to bed. BTW, goats only need a few hours of sleep. I often find them out in the paddock laying on top of some wooden spools I put out there for them, late at night.
Consider bird nets.

You say you're not sustainable, but you'll have eggs a goat's milk when others are without.

Someone brought up the other day that's it's difficult to go anywhere for more than a day or so because of animal care. That can be an issue, but these days I don't much feel the need to be gone long. Besides, my daughters no handle most of the animals now. ;)
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Goats don't produce milk unless they're with kid.
 
My brief peek into the world of prepping left me feeling much the way Boyette does.

At a shooting match one day this guy walks up to me. Has to be north of 400 lbs. A rifle slung across his chest is at the low ready at all times due to his belly. So he asks me if I am into prepping. At this point I had only ready a few things, but as I listened to this guy talk about his massive food and water stores all I could think of is how physically incapable he would be in actually protecting it or moving it. As he talked I could already tell that he was winded from the exertion. He had somehow, through listening to him, wrapped himself in a fantasy world where when things went bad and the zombies attacked he would be able to sit in his garage for the next 50 years and eat dried beans and water.

I learned after that that there are “preppers” and there are “survivalists”. Preppers, to me, are the 500 lbs of beans and 100 2 liter coke bottles filled with water and “I’m ready” types. These are the types that think their 5,000 rounds in loaded magazines are what’s going to get them through the constant running gun battle that the apocalypse will inevitably bring.

Survivalists tend to be those who concentrate on a holistic approach. Taking care of their bodies, learning skills and tactics for multiple environments, molding their current surroundings to be less reliant on the outside world, and leading a life style of self sufficiency. These are the types who have 5,000 rounds because prices on ammo changes and may as well buy it cheap and stack it deep so you can practice and train for decades.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
amnesia said:
Wasn't trying to be offensive. It's shockingly surprising that people don't know.
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Yes, or that chickens lay eggs without needing a rooster.
We're making arrangements now to freshen one of our goats.
These are the basic skills and knowledge that are being lost, but have been part of "survivalism" for eons. They call it being a farmer. ;)
We're still learning.
 
I have a Life straw, a firestarter, and some fish hooks and a few Grocks.

I'm good. If this stuff doesn't work I have a 147gr hollow point with my name on it.
 
Jayne said:
Prepping isn't all about shooting zombies in the head at 1000 yards with your laser equipped Mosin... it's mostly just crappy work.

Rotating things, digging ditches, shoveling gravel, dealing with leaking water tanks, weeding gardens... just an endless array of boring tasks that all seem to be dirty, time consuming or generally just work.

Can civilization just collapse already so I don't have to rotate fuel cans for a while? Sheesh.
Click to expand...

Jane, it isn't going to collapse.
 
Pbj ak said:
We are not hard core preppers but we’ve been trying to be more self sufficient. We’ve been working in the garden and hopefully going to get a few chickens, goats, and maybe a pig to try to raise in the next couple months.

I don’t think it’s possible for us to become totally self sufficient but we figure every little bit helps. I think people that actually try will have a better start than 99% of the population if something bad was to happen. Experience is priceless.

Here’s the garden a week ago. We got a late start but have replanted the corn after it drowned and also planted watermelon, cantaloupe, and asparagus in another garden on the other side of the old farm house. Hoping to plant more corn and beans over there for a later harvest.
View attachment 129057
Click to expand...

Wow. That place is beautiful my friend.
 
georgel said:
There are chicken feed and water systems that reduce the need for daily care. I have most of the parts for both, but those project are like 102,103 on the list. Our goats roam a paddock attached to the stall and put themselves to bed. BTW, goats only need a few hours of sleep. I often find them out in the paddock laying on top of some wooden spools I put out there for them, late at night.
Consider bird nets.

You say you're not sustainable, but you'll have eggs a goat's milk when others are without.

Someone brought up the other day that's it's difficult to go anywhere for more than a day or so because of animal care. That can be an issue, but these days I don't much feel the need to be gone long. Besides, my daughters no handle most of the animals now. ;)
Click to expand...

I made an auto watering system for our chickens. it consist of 2 gutters on each side of a 16 foot roof. these are connected with 2 of the 275 gallon caged totes. I have a garden hose attached that feeds a 4 foot piece of pvc that has chicken water nipples on it. They haven't run out of water in over 7 years. I also made a gravity fed chicken feeder out of 6 inch pvc the has the bottom of a plastic bucket attached to the bottom. It will hold about 50lb of feed. How many chickens you have will dictate how long the feed will last and how long you can be gone. I still haven't figured out how to pick up eggs while I'm gone.
 
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